Statement from the Press Secretary on the President’s Meeting with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama

“The President met this morning at the White House with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama. The President stated his strong support for the preservation of Tibet’s unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity and the protection of human rights for Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China. The President commended the Dalai Lama’s “Middle Way” approach, his commitment to nonviolence and his pursuit of dialogue with the Chinese government. The President stressed that he has consistently encouraged both sides to engage in direct dialogue to resolve differences and was pleased to hear about the recent resumption of talks. The President and the Dalai Lama agreed on the importance of a positive and cooperative relationship between the United States and China.”

All we know, for sure, is that the world’s most famous Simple Monk met with Obama in the Map Room (making it less official than an Oval Office sit-down) and also met with Sec. of State Hillary Clinton.

I recently asked a Chinese national friend, who has lived and worked in the U.S. for many years, how the Chinese people felt about Tibet. He told me asking China give up Tibet is like asking the U.S. to give back the West to Native Americans.

Furthermore, China in Tibet is a liberation for the majority of working Tibetans, who were effectively enslaved by being forced to support the religious ruling class, the majority of whom refused to work so they could meditate all day. In other words, there was a large slothful ruling population being supported by the working people.

When pressed a little further, he said even if the above weren't true, China would still need to retain Tibet purely for defensive purposes against India.

Needless to say, I found these answers upsetting, but I guess it's still worth knowing what the average Chinese is thinking.

Way, you posted this last video to sangha-announce as "His Holiness the Dalai Lama throwing snow at reporters", but to my eye it looks like His Holiness is throwing small bits of snow like He would toss a rice blesing in a shrine room.

Either way, Way, His sweetness and humor is so wonderful and refreshing!! Thanks very much for this great feature.

Thanks for sharing this excellent post, i really love your weblog, but i’ve some issue i dont know whether it is my side problem or in your website? some words from the post on your blog have charactor encoding problem, yes i use auto detecting, can u pls look into this issue a bit?

tibet problems are created by British and American imperialism. With CIA dirty hand behind it. It is part of the result of Cold war, the war against china. It is an impossible problem now between Dalai and China. He would never admit his mistake and appologize, while chinese would never trust him again. that is that. How do you rebuild relationship when neither would trust the otherside? Plus all the demagogue from both side would kill any practical solution possible. that is essentially the tragedy of our entire mankind for so many millions of years. Live with it. The world has never been even remotely rational and reasonable. Look at Vietname war. Strategic Hamlet, that is concentration camp for 8 millions people. 8 millions tons of bombs. Torture. Agent Orange. The worst holocaust in the entire mandkind. Who did that? American democracy. the best on the planet, plus nuclear bomb. Tibet was a much smaller problem. My god.